


carry me (we all fall down)

by orphan_account



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Emotional Desolation, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, No Pairings... YET, Redemption, Sassassination, Teamwork, abandoned, b/c I'm trash
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-12-13
Updated: 2012-12-13
Packaged: 2017-11-21 00:53:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/591593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A mix of two prompts from the kinkmeme:</p>
<p>1) "After Pitch' defeat there's an unbalance in the world and if isn't fixed soon everything will become FUBAR. The Guardians realize they MUST make peace with Pitch and get him back to work. The problem is that the Nightmare King is just too exhausted, both mentally and physically, to actually do anything. + Sassy and silly Pitch, underneath Pitch' arrogant demeanor there's a world of pain, loneliness and dejection, yet he acts like it's normal, when the Guardians start being nicer to him he doesn't know how to respond."</p>
<p>2) Great danger threatens the world--the Boogeyman and the Guardians have to join their forces, and nobody is happy about it. After some time together the Guardians start to notice things about Pitch. Things like he never sleeps, broods, way too skinny, sometimes is reckless in battle and takes on more opponents then he can fight off (like he did in the movie), doesn't care about is injuries, or about himself all that much. He is still the same Pitch, with all the sass and dissing everybody, it's just that sometimes they can see cracks in his attitude.</p>
            </blockquote>





	carry me (we all fall down)

**Author's Note:**

> hello all my rotg-ers! this fandom has officially eaten my brain. first a fanvideo, now an actual fanfic? idk what's gotten into me, but i like it. aww yiss!  
> full prompts here:  
> 1) http://rotg-kink.dreamwidth.org/1511.html?thread=437991#cmt437991  
> 2) http://rotg-kink.dreamwidth.org/1511.html?view=534503&posted=1#cmt534503  
> without further ado... le fic!

It started with Jack.

Of course it did--Jack was the youngest, the most forgiving, the most likely to believe in second chances (even before the Guardian of Hope).

It took time, to be sure. A casual “I wonder what Pitch is up to?” here and a “What was Pitch’s problem, anyway?” there, dropped at Christmas parties and bi-monthly Guardian gatherings.

Once Jack started cataloguing the similarities, the theories, the half-baked plans, his crazy idea began to seem a bit saner.

MiM showing them Pitch’s shadow on the dais clinched it.

North was the first to agree, for his holiday had passed by the time of Pitch’s abortive uprising. He also understood the importance of contrast, something that both the Moon and the Guardians relied on (not matter how they disliked the fact). Surprisingly, Sandy was next. When Jack asked him why, all Sandy would give him was an image of a circling butterfly.

Tooth reluctantly followed, stating that “He still has a box of my teeth,” although she wouldn’t say whose they were.

Bunnymund, however, was staunchly against the idea. After the passing of another successful Easter, however, not even the stoic Guardian could hold his grudge when confronted by all of his fellows.

Jack noted that as a team, the descent from sunlight to pitch black seemed much less imposing.

They stood together in the center of his lair, noting the hoof marks on the stone and the stillness of the cages above their heads. Pitch’s black globe stood off to the side, glowing yet twisted in its mimicry.

Tooth flitted around, looking for something in the darkness. “This place is so sad,” she hummed, flitting between the cages. “My poor Teeth…”

“Pitch!” Jack shouted as the Guardians spread out behind him. “Pitch, come out, we want to talk to you!” Jack stalked forward, staff at the ready. “Come out, come out, wherever you are…”

They fanned out, waiting as the silence sucked up every last breath.

“He’s not here, mate,” remarked Bunny, sitting down to scratch behind his ear. “I told you this was a bad idea.”

Jack gave the Pooka a look. “I’m going to look for him.”

“Oh no you don’t, Frostbite--“

“I’m fine! I can take care of myself.”

“Right, says the Guardian of Getting into Trouble.”

“Hey!”

“We’re gone, mate. Like I said, it’s a waste of time, and I’ve got eggs to paint.”

“No,” interrupted North. “We must keep looking. Pitch! We would like to speak, is about Man in Moon!” he boomed.

There was a rattle of metal. North turned with a dramatic whirl of his coat, his weapons at the ready.

The noise had come from Sandy, who had both fists around the South America of Pitch’s globe and was shaking the thin, sturdy metal franticly.

“What’s wrong, Sandy?” asked North as he came closer. All Sandy could do was point, chest heaving and expression wide, worried. North took one look in the globe and swore colorfully, stowing his sabers.

Bunny and Tooth approached the globe with apprehension. Tooth gasped while she circled, her hands flying to her face. “Is that--?”

“C’mon, are we gonna stand around all day like dingoes or drag him out of this thing?” huffed Bunny.

Even so, the Guardians were hesitant to move closer.

A ways away from the commotion, Jack was intrigued with a pile of black sand that almost looked like it could have once been a Nightmare. “Whoa.”

He poked it with his staff, sending frost skittering over the heap. His delicate winter rime spread from one mass to the nest, revealing a sea of black sand. Jack stood in awe as ice covered an entire legion of dead Nightmares.

 “Hey guys,” he shouted over his shoulder excitedly, “come look at--“

“ _Jack_!”

The desperation in Tooth’s voice made him abandon his discovery with a newfound sense of urgency and fly over to where the Guardians were gathered.

He didn’t like what he saw.

Inside the globe, peeking out from between the metalwork, lay Pitch. He was huddled on Antarctica, golden eyes shut tight in a mockery of sleep. His arms were curled to his chest, fingers pressing into palms as they twitched weakly. His once-graceful body jerked as if he were trying to curl in on himself further, so tightly that he could crush himself into nonexistance. His cloak lay in tatters underneath him. Pitch’s heaving back was exposed to the dank air, and Jack could see every gash, every bite mark, and every rib bone jutting out from under ashy skin. His cracked lips parted around jagged teeth that were closed like a steel trap, veins standing out from the column of his neck as his clenched his jaw to keep the sound in.

In a scream of rage, Jack’s staff connected with North America, enveloping the globe in frost. In the oceans between the continents, nightmare sand that had previously been invisible writhed. Jack thrust his staff into the spaces the sand filled. He strained against the living hurricane of black that housed the Nightmare King in its calm eye.

North pulled Jack back by the hoodie. “This is much worse,” muttered North. “We will need firepower.”

“Step aside, Frostbite.” Bunny said as he laid several of his eggs down at the base of the globe, and ushered them back as they exploded in a terrific burst of color.

Tooth was through the smoke in an instant, flying out with tendrils of nightmare sand still curled around the tall man she carried in her seemingly delicate arms. Her beautiful eyes were manic, pupils blown as she tried to resist her own mounting fear.

North made quick work of the lingering sand that stretch lazily forward from the globe’s remnants, hacking into them with a hearty roar.

Tooth gently laid Pitch down on the floor several yards away, cradling his lolling head in her motherly way. Sandy caught up Pitch’s hands, eyes full of sorrow. Tooth signed, looking at Sandy with worry. “What will we do?”

Sandy just shook his head and held on tighter to his oldest enemy’s still form.

“We’ve got to get Pitch back to North’s,” commented Bunny. His eyes were flint, sparking with both anger and guilt and the readiness to make a change--a true testament to his life as a warrior.

However, it was Jack who first noticed the Nightmares stirring.

“ _Watch_ \--!”

The cavern became a tornadohivestampedetsunamiwildfire swarming like smoke, acrid and punishing. Sandy used his whips to pull the Guardians to himself, secured around their waists like lifelines lest they were lost to the surging darkness.

“Time to go, time to go, _time to go_!” screamed Jack, eyes trying to make out his friend’s faces through the sandstorm.

“Can you get to warren from here?” shouted North against the wind.

Bunnymund shut his eyes tight, wrapping his arms around the huddle to help brace themselves. He shouted back, “I don’t know! My warren’s not this deep, if we go down more--“

“Just try!” cried Tooth.

North gripped Bunny’s forearm tight. “We must go!”

With a roar to challenge the shriek of the storm, Bunny sunk the six of them safely into the ground.

 For the first time in centuries, Pitch Black fell asleep.


End file.
